SurviveFirst…BreatheLater.
1642 Words
I didn’t come here to be seen. I came to disappear but they were already watching.
——
The North was colder than any place I’d ever known.Even through layers of armor and binding wraps, the wind hit like claws.
“Alpha Academy,” the coachman said, jerking his chin toward the looming fortress ahead. “Pray you leave with your bones intact.”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My throat was raw from holding back screams all night.
I climbed down. The coach rattled away without another word.
The Academy loomed like something carved out of a mountain’s fury — black stone, frozen iron gates, banners ripped by wind. Wolves were etched into every surface: fangs bared, claws raised, no mercy.
Not a school,more like a battlefield.
I walked through the gates. No escort no instructions. Just cold, and the weight of my forged pendant bouncing against my ribs.
“Ari of House Wyrnshade”.
A lie, sealed in blood and desperation.
Inside the courtyard, dozens of recruits circled a training pit. Bodies slammed against stone. Blood splattered snow.
No one looked twice at me.
Perfect.
Until a boot crashed into my side.
I hit the ground hard. Gasped and looked up.
A towering boy stood over me. Shaggy black hair. Cruel smile. A Beta by the smell of him. “You walk in like that, no name, no bow? You get stepped on.”
I scrambled up. Swallowed blood. “Didn’t realize the dogs here were blind.”
His hand flew toward my face.
A voice snapped across the yard.
“That’s enough, Bane.”
Everyone froze.
A figure stepped forward. Broad shoulders, storm-grey eyes, presence like a hurricane. The boy who’d spoken wasn’t smiling. He didn’t need to. His silence demanded more respect than any roar.
Xander Blackthorn.
I recognized him instantly. Every recruit did. The top Alpha candidate.
Unbeaten and Unbroken.
Bane stepped back. Xander didn’t look at me. He just walked past.
But I noticed something.
His nostrils flared, just once.
Like he caught something in the air that didn’t make sense.
I turned my head away. My scent was masked. My aura locked but still, he noticed.
I had to be careful.
---
Orientation was a joke.
A blur of rules barked by instructors who looked like war-hardened mercenaries.
Don’t shift without permission.
Don’t enter the eastern wing.
Don’t bleed on the Headmaster’s floor.
Anyone who failed training was cut. Some literally.
We were assigned barracks by bloodline rank. Mine — falsified — placed me at the bottom tier of the Bloodline Division. Room 47-B. Four bunks,two cracked walls with one working heater.
The other recruits were older and larger. I was the smallest. The quietest. The only one who flinched when someone raised their voice.
“Fresh meat,” someone muttered when I passed.
The Academy didn’t believe in breaks. We were training by dawn. Combat,endurance,obedience all together.
By the end of the first day, my knuckles were split open, my back bruised, my voice gone.
But I was still standing.
That night, I sat in the barrack shadows, wrapping my hands. My thoughts drifted back to Virelia. To my room. To the mirror. The silver hair now gone.
That girl was dead.
Good.
She wouldn’t have survived here anyway.
---
On the third day, we were thrown into our first trial: the Frostbane Gauntlet.
No weapons. No food. Just your pack of four and the brutal wilderness behind the Academy. Survival was the lesson.
We were dropped into the forest before sunrise. Everything was ice, jagged trees, snow-fanged cliffs. My pack was useless — three arrogant boys who laughed when they saw me.
“You’ll be bait,” one said. “We’ll do the hunting.”
I didn’t argue. I didn’t speak. I just kept moving.
By nightfall, we were down to two. One had broken a leg. The other wandered off and didn’t return.
I didn’t care.
I focused on staying awake. Staying alive. Ignoring the burn in my muscles, the cramps in my ribs from the binding and cold.
The suppressants I’d taken before leaving home were wearing off.
I could feel the wolffire twitching beneath my skin. Not enough to shift but enough to make me ache.
I found a tree hollow and crawled inside. Sleep took me like drowning.
---
I woke to the snap of a twig.
Then a growl.
Not human.
Not friendly.
My heart flipped as two eyes glinted in the darkness — low to the ground staring down at me
A rogue wolf. Feral. Snarling.
I backed up slowly, breath shallow. My shift wasn’t ready. I couldn’t defend myself.
But then —
A blur crashed into the clearing. Flashes of fur,fangs and claws swayed through my eyes.
The rogue wolf was tackled mid-pounce. Blood sprayed.The second wolf — sleek, gold-eyed tore the rogue’s throat with terrifying precision.
I froze.
The golden-eyed wolf turned to me and sniffed the air.
Then shifted.
Naked, bleeding, golden-haired and completely unbothered by either fact — stood a boy I recognized instantly.
Cassian Vale.
Second-ranked Alpha candidate. Political prince. Heir to the Vale Pack. Dangerous in a different way.
He leaned against a tree, wiped blood off his lip. “You’re lucky I get bored easily.”
I said nothing.
He tilted his head. “Not even a thank you?”
“I would’ve managed.”
He smirked. “Sure you would’ve, Pup.”
I turned to leave.
“Wait,” he said.
I didn’t.
He didn’t follow. But I could feel his eyes on my back the entire walk back to camp.
---
The next morning, names were called. Recruits disqualified. Three were dead. One was missing an arm.
I was not dead.
I passed.
But the instructors still looked at me like I was something to be broken.
Especially Professor Iris Reed.
She studied me like a puzzle she couldn’t quite solve.
“Where are you from, recruit?” she asked during sparring drills.
“South Range.”
“Your scent says otherwise.”
“I had a fever. Burned it out.”
She didn’t believe me.
But she smiled. That was worse.
---
Three weeks passed.
I got stronger.
Faster.
Meaner.
I fought dirty. I stopped apologizing when I landed hits and flinched less.
Cassian stopped pretending not to notice me.
Xander stopped pretending not to watch me.
I stayed quiet.
Until the full moon came.
That’s when everything nearly fell apart.
---
I felt it building all day — the pressure under my skin, the heat rising in my veins.
The suppressant pills weren’t enough anymore. My shift was trying to surface. The bond magic I’d buried was clawing out.
That night, I left my barracks early. Tried to get to the forest.
But it’s too late.
My legs gave out near the border cliffs. The moon hit my skin like fire. My body cracked with partial shift — claws, half-muzzle, silver aura bleeding from my pores. Pain twisted everything.
I collapsed.
The last thing I saw was someone running toward me.
Golden hair.
---
I woke up by a fire.
A coat draped over me.
Cassian crouched beside it, eyes half-glowing. He said nothing.
“Why?” I croaked.
“Why what?”
“Why help me again?”
He shrugged. “You’re interesting.”
“Bad reason.”
“Best reason,” he said. “You’re not what you pretend to be.”
My heart stuttered. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t smell like the South. You don’t fight like a trained wolf. And when you looked at that rogue… you didn’t freeze like someone helpless.”
He leaned closer.
“You’re hiding something, Ari.”
I forced my expression to stay flat. “And what are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Yet.”
Then he stood and walked away. No threats nor warnings.
Just that smirk that said:”I know you’re lying.”
---
The next day, I was summoned to the Headmaster’s office.
Not a normal or routine in the academy.
I stood before a door carved with ancient runes. Guards flanked each side. One nodded.
“Enter.”
I pushed the door open.
A vast chamber filled with books,map,weapons and at the center is a man standing with his back to me.
Silver-white hair,dark robes,no warmth.
Riven Storm.
The Headmaster,also the academy legend turned slowly. His eyes met mine — ice-blue, impossible to read.
“You’ve been here one month,” he said.
“Yes, sir.”
“You’ve survived three trials.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re lying about your lineage.”
My breath caught.
“I don’t care why,” he continued. “But lies in my Academy are dangerous. Especially when they burn with power you cannot control.”
“I’m not—”
“Don’t insult my intelligence.”
He stepped closer.
“You carry Moondust fire. I can feel it in your skin.”
I froze.
He leaned down, voice colder than the wind outside.
“If you want to survive, Ari, you’ll need more than masks. You’ll need control. Because if you lose it here, you won’t just expose yourself — you’ll burn down everything.”
Then he handed me a vial.
“Take this. It’ll keep the shift at bay. But the next time you come undone… I won’t protect you.”
I took the vial with shaking fingers.
He turned his back again.
“Dismissed.”
I left.
But just before the door closed behind me—
He spoke once more.
“Tell me, Ariel Duskborn… how long do you think you can lie to a kingdom before it eats you alive?”
I froze,my legs suddenly felt like jelly…No way he knows my real name also.
I’m doomed!
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- Writer
